This victim of mob justice says he is lucky to be alive and able to tell his story.
Mabuti Wylbagh, 28, was discharged from Tygerberg Hospital on Wednesday after 60 mense attacked him with hammers, stones, sjamboks and other dangerous objects.
Speaking from his bed in Section 14, Bloekombos, he struggles to move.
He says the beating from hell came after eight people accused him and a friend of being thieves.
“They accused me of robbing a woman and said they were going to teach me a lesson. I said I was innocent, but they shouted at me, dragged me to the Bloekombos taxi rank and beat me until I lost consciousness,” he says.
“We went down on our knees and begged them to leave us alone, but it was impossible to reason with them. We could smell alcohol on their breath.”
He says the mugging victim even came and told the mob that they had the wrong people. But the mob ignored her and continued.
“They bound my legs and hands up like a sheep headed for a slaughterhouse. They tied a wire around my penis. I thought I was going to die,” he says. The angry attackers eventually left him to die in the street.
Now, 10 days later, he says he has been left with painful kidney damage.
Kraaifontein Police spokesperson Captain Gehard Niemand says: “Each and everyone involved in the attack will face the full might of the law.”
* This article was published on p10 of the Daily Voice